Management's decision to have its organization unionized or stay as a nonunion operation is based on many factors. This paper will define and describe the impact of unions and labor relations along with examining the impact of changes in employee relations strategies, policies and practices on the organizational performance. This paper continues with answering the question "are unions still relevant in the United States?" and it concludes with a brief description of the union campaign, the election, contract negotiations, grievance handling, arbitrations, labor relations, and strikes.

Unions and Labor Relations

Unions are "organizations formed for the purpose of representing the member's interests in dealing with employers" (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, p.441). Unions provide a method for skilled and unskilled employees to achieve wage uniformity and improve working conditions through collective bargaining (Boone, & Kurtz, 1999).

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the act ...

English: Color logo of the National Labor Relation...

Union members picketing outside the National Labor...

In the 1700 and 1800s the need for unions evolved in the United States due to safety and security needs for employees working in intolerable conditions. Some of these intolerable working conditions include low wages, long work hours and unsafe work environment. During the Industrial Revolution workers, including children, worked all day in unsafe factories for only pennies per day (Labor Union, n.d.). Ongoing conflict between employees and employer allowed the unions to intensify its role in collective bargaining within an organization. Unions also provided conflict management for employee raised complaints, and labor contracts (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2003). Unions had forced employers to change the workplace environment drastically, develop new factory systems, seniority driven wages and management accountability. Today, US labor unions role is the legal representatives of workers in many industries but are predominant in the private sector. (Labor Union, n.d.).

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